Specialist support for OCD, tic disorders, and body-focused repetitive behaviours
These concerns often thrive in silence and shame. If you've been managing alone, you're not the only one. With specialised treatment, OCD, tics and BFRBs can be well managed.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
OCD is often misunderstood — including by the people living with it. Many people don't recognise it in themselves for years, mistaking it for anxiety, depression, or simply being "a worrier."
At its core, OCD works in a cycle — a thought appears, your mind decides what it means, and that interpretation feels like a genuine threat. The only way to get relief is through whatever your OCD demands, whether that's a visible compulsion or something entirely internal. The relief never lasts — and the cycle starts again.
Intrusive thoughts can be particularly difficult to sit with — they keep returning regardless of what you do, and at times can feel completely at odds with your character and your values.
Over time, OCD can take up more and more of your day — and quietly affect the relationships and things that matter most to you.
ERP — Exposure and Response Prevention — is a well-researched approach for OCD. Intrusive thoughts are a normal part of human experience — the difference with OCD is what your mind makes them mean, and that's where therapy can help. With the right support, the thoughts may still arise, but begin to carry less weight over what you do next.
Tics and Tourette Syndrome
Tics can be physically demanding, emotionally exhausting, and socially isolating — and the weight of all three is rarely visible to others.
Physically, tics can be painful to live with — muscle tension, fatigue, and for some people, they can get in the way of everyday things like driving, studying, or working. The effort of holding tics in can be draining in itself — and often leads to a surge of tics afterwards.
You may have spent years being told to stop or try harder — as if it's simply a matter of willpower. It isn't. Tics are neurological, not a choice — whether they occur as part of Tourette Syndrome or another tic disorder.
The social weight of tics is often the part that goes unnoticed — the constant self-awareness, bracing for reactions, replaying moments afterwards. Over time, that can quietly affect your confidence and leave you feeling like you have to hide part of yourself to feel accepted.
CBIT — Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention for Tics — is a well-researched approach that starts with understanding your unique patterns — the triggers, sensations, and situations where tics feel hardest. Using Habit Reversal Training, you learn to recognise the urge before it becomes a tic and practise a competing response — a small, deliberate action that helps you ride out the urge, so that over time it becomes less frequent and less intense.
With the right support, it may become possible to feel less at the mercy of your tics — and more able to engage with the life and relationships that matter to you.
Hair Pulling & Skin Picking
Body-focused repetitive behaviours — hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting, and similar behaviours — often feel automatic. Your hands move before you've had a chance to choose, and by the time you notice, it's already happened. For others, it happens in response to a specific urge or sensation that builds until the behaviour brings relief.
BFRBs are driven by a complex mix of factors. The pull can be sensory — a specific texture, a tension, or the urge to find and remove something that feels out of place. It can be emotional — stress, anxiety, boredom, or the need to focus. It's usually not just a matter of trying harder or just stopping.
Over time, the physical impact can build — soreness, skin irritation, hair or nail damage, or changes you find yourself wanting to hide. You might find yourself avoiding situations where others might notice, finding ways to cover or conceal, and keeping it to yourself. The shame that comes with it can be as consuming as the behaviour itself.
ComB — Comprehensive Behavioural treatment — focuses on what drives your unique pattern. With the right support, it may become possible to feel less pulled by the urge — and more able to meet your needs in other ways.
Professional support is available when you're ready
Feel free to reach out with any questions
Please note: We're not a crisis or emergency service. If you need urgent help or you don't feel safe, call 000 or go to the nearest Emergency Department. For 24/7 support, contact Lifeline 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.
Phone
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0481 830 110Contact us via email if you have any questions, wish to share feedback, or need to discuss appointment details.
Admin@wellbeingsclinicalpsychology.com.auPostal Address
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PO Box 83, Revesby North, NSW 2212